Ghosthunter

furryfiend posted at 11/15/2009 7:22 PM "Don't take this the wrong way, J... but if you've never noticed the figure changing during the walk to the chair before, I dread to think how bad your picture must have been!"

Bad. I've almost been playing by feel, which ruined the X button on one controller from constant hammering to find things in games. A lot of the detail I noticed before was the result of looking around with the sniper rifle's telescopic sight.

furryfiend continued, "On the subject of regional variations, I've only played through the NTSC version once so far, so there's probably lots I missed, but there arequite a few technical differences between PAL and NTSC (Japanese seems to be a mix of both), such as Hud display, and... well, I won't bore you with it, it's a long nerdy list!"

I could probably pick them up off of your youtube videos.

furryfiend finished, "One of the aesthetic differences is the appearance of the Revenants - they all looked pretty much the same to me during the PAL playthrough, but in the NTSC version, as you said, they wear shreds of clothing in the prison and look different again in the military base. But most of the changes have been on the technical side, and mostly for the better, IMO."

I confess I really like the look of the Revenants, so it was easy to notice more about them. The ones in the Military base look extra cool. And a monster in torn prison garb seems even more monstrous.


Some more details,

- Hawksmoor's visage appears in a few places. Over his magic mirror, in the stage scenery (top middle, IIRC), over the entrance to his castle. Of course, one of the spirits released by Lazarus has Hawksmoor's face in that cutscene.

- Lazarus climbing down ladders to underground and back again is reminiscent of the Labyrinth in Silent Hill 2. Down to the wading through water.

- The shark hanging in the prison storeroom has a vicious looking mouth.

- The Spectral Goggles can see ghosts through solid objects. One of my favorite tricks is kneeling before exiting out of the last ghosttown building. Using the goggles + sniper scope to watch the sniper ghosts show up and pick them off one by one. (This isn't actually a new discovery for me, but I don't think it's been mentioned before.)

- The hats of the ghost guards in the prison frequently seem like crowns.

- The ghost surgeon is really spooky.

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Jove the Sleep Depraved. Primal Wiki: http://primal.wikia.com

furryfiend posted at 11/17/2009 1:05 AM "Another random sidenote - dialogue: When I was trying to commit sucide in the old school (don't ask!) I just stood around and let the blue spooks rush me. Every second time, there's a few words or a line from Hawksmoor.I thought it was a nice touch, it's just a shame there's no dialogue volume - I can't quite make out everything he's saying because the sfx tend to drown him out."

Just tried that. Never noticed the color distortion on Lazarus from some of the damage. Wow, who needs hallucinations?

I heard the Hawksmoor lines, always with a scream beforehand. Turning down the music helped some, but I think his voice is being played backwards. Thanks for another great detail.

Two more points about the game.

- Lazarus can backtrack amazingly far sometimes. I think I went from just before the end of the swamps all the way back to the beginning of the swamp once, just to see if Lazarus could do it. I mean from right before the cutscene where Lazarus makes friends with the swamp trio, all the way back to the Swamp Cemetery where he entered that realm after leaving the Old School.

- Lazarus can't slide down ladders if they're not configured for it. Protruding rungs or lack of rails to grip.


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Jove the Sleep Depraved. Primal Wiki: http://primal.wikia.com

furryfiend posted at 11/25/2009 3:09 AM "Continuing with the random nonsense, I think I know whatHawksmoor's saying now. It's 'Warm Flesh', 'Come to me, child,' and 'Do not struggle;I will free you from this waking dream.' Had trouble with the last one - so much screaming!"

I thought I recognized "Flesh" in one of them. The others will have to wait until I've the time to give the project proper attention.

furryfiend wrote, "Anyhoo, I'm thinking of doing a new walkthrough -YT's made a few changes since my original uploads, so I hope the new ones will look and sound much better.I just wondered if anyone has any thoughts/advice before I push on. It's going to be another walthrough, not a playthrough, so I'll be doing a fair bit of editing. Do I include the cutscenes or not? I'd like to, but on the other hand I want to avoid too many spoilers. Might be a bit weird, but perhaps I could compile them all at the end? Second internal debate is whether to do HD or not. I've uploaded a Ghosthunter/Primal HD test (cutscenes only) and I think the difference between normal quality and HD is minimal, and probably not worth the effort, considering only a limited number of people can watch it. Takes ages to load for me!"

I like HD and generally wait for it to load. Like you, I'm not sure it makes that much difference. But I still want every bit of image quality I can get, especially for one of my favorite games. Still, dealer's choice.

Walkthroughs spoil the game by definition, I would say. In fact, I watch them as much or more for the cutscenes as the gameplay. When I'm actually playing I automatically use cutscenes to take a break. If the game doesn't have some way to replay the cutscenes I rarely have much idea of what's happened after my first playthrough. Adding them at the end seems a good option.

One thing I'd like to see is the different possible behaviors or the guards after Lazarus exits the initial Administration Building at the Prison. Sometimes nightstick guards come down from the long path. Sometimes they don't.

A couple of times I've walked Lazarus up there in a crouch, to just short of the area where the prisoner's voices can be heard. Watching from long range with the telescopic sight on the sniper rifle can sometimes spot a neat line of the guards standing quietly at attention.

Thanks for the post. Sorry it took me so long to respond.

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Jove the Sleep Depraved. Primal Wiki: http://primal.wikia.com